(Left to right) Kal Rudman, Dave Neal, Paul Gluck and Dick Sheeran
Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Luncheon, Bala Golf Club, Philadelphia
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Broadcast Pioneers member Dave Gomberg is better known to people in Philadelphia's TV industry as "Dave Neal." During his career, Dave created Herb "Denenberg's Dump," Bill Kuster's "Kuster's Garden" (which Bill continued in Denver), the "Energy Warden" made famous by Dick Sheeran and Hank Sperka's "Sidewalk Gourmet." He worked at Channels 3, 6 and 10 and was a reporter on KYW Newsradio.

In 1978, Dave left KYW-TV where he was Assistant News Director. He started at Channel 3 in 1970, when he was asked to move from radio to become a television news producer. The day Neal was let go from Eyewitness News, he had job offers from both "Action News" and Channel 10, then owned by CBS.

Dave Neal hails from Camden, NJ where he grew up spending time at his father's shoe store. Deciding the shoe sales wasn't for him (neither was sign painting - something Neal did for a little while), he got a job as salesman at radio station WCAM, Camden.

While there, he received a call from a Jersey Teamsters official. Seems that Union President Jimmy Hoffa was in town and none of the reporters were planning to show up. This, he was told, would be embarrassing. He borrowed a tape recorder, the old reel to reel kind, and spend over an hour interviewing Hoffa. Afterwards, he sold a sound bite to KYW Newsradio (which just started the all news format) for a few bucks.

Gomberg realized that KYW radio was paying him $3 a pop for his sound bite. During his first month, they used 125 cuts. Then he found out that WCAU was paying five bucks and the networks, $25. He was providing cuts to all of them, using different names for each. Finally, KYW got tired of paying him all this money and hired him as news director. And that's how it all started.

On Friday, November 19, 2010, Dave Neal was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame.

From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Photo originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers member Jerry Klein
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